Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in September 2019.
The school holidays changed the life of Martin Farber, 66, forever.
In 2007, her daughter – who at the time was attending Illinois State University – decided she wanted to spend a college vacation volunteering in Costa Rica and staying with a local family, he explains. -he. She came home raving about the experience, so in 2008 Farber – who at the time lived in Evanston, Ill., Just outside of Chicago, and sold cars – made his mark. first trip there.
“It was a big surprise to me – bumpy roads, dogs barking in the streets,” he says. “I wasn’t in love at first.”
But as his daughter began to travel there more and eventually moved there for a year, he made further trips to Costa Rica. It quickly grew on him – in particular, people. “The Costa Rican people are warm, open and friendly. I felt less invisible in a foreign land in a strange town whose language I didn’t speak than in Evanston.
And the more time he spent there, the more it impacted him: “On one of my trips there, I thought: my daughter’s life has more meaning than mine,” he says. “There was nothing wrong with my life, but I felt my life was out of the context with who I had become. … I would have bills and earn money to pay them, but it was no longer satisfactory, ”he recalls. “I knew I had to change my life – there was no more joy in what I was doing.”
Moreover, when he returned from his trips to Costa Rica, people noticed him. “I would come back and my friends and my therapist were like, you look better after you go,” he laughs.
A view of the hot springs near Martin Farber’s home in Costa Rica. Martin farber
So in 2014 he packed his bags and moved to Orosi – a quaint and lush little town with waterfalls and hot springs just over an hour’s drive from San José – promising himself to stay two years. . It has been five years and he now plans to stay in Costa Rica indefinitely. (Although Farber notes that, for him, “this is not a retreat; it is a chance to lead a new and different life.”)
This is what her life is like, from health care costs to residence and day to day living:
The cost: While many expats spend a lot more to live in Costa Rica, Farber says, “I could live off my social security while saving money. He says “one person can live on $ 1,200 a month, two people on $ 2,000”. The key, he says, is to live more like him and the Costa Ricans do – in a modest house, eat local food, and buy local produce.
Indeed, Farber himself only spends $ 300 a month on rent (he rents a house from a friend who recently moved and got him a good deal), about $ 225 a month on groceries, and only $ 50. $ per month in total for water and electricity (the temperate climate in Orosi means you rarely need heating or air conditioning). Veteran Volkswagen VOW, +1.60% VLKAF, -0.89% seller saves money by not owning a car (those over 65 take city buses for free), which can be a significant expense in Costa Rica; for his cell phone, “I pay as I go… about $ 10 can last me a few weeks or more,” he says, adding that “a lot of people handle their cell phones this way. You can recharge them anywhere.
His main expense is travel: he returns to the United States to visit his mother in Florida several times a year and recently spent part of the summer in Chicago helping a friend with a dealership there. He also spends a fair amount of money on health care. He says that while flights can be flown for as little as $ 350 roundtrip during the off-seasons, the cost can be much higher the rest of the year.
A cell. Martin Farber
Health care: Farber, who has permanent resident status in Costa Rica, says he pays around $ 90 a month to participate in the country’s health system – adding that the health care he has received has been very good. (A 2018 study on the quality and access to health care in more than 190 countries ranked Costa Rica 62nd.)
When he developed a retinal detachment, however, he paid for the procedure out of pocket so he didn’t have to wait for the required surgery, he says – adding that the entire procedure cost him around 5,000. $. “I should have waited four days,” he says, if he hadn’t paid to speed things up. “It could have been good, but maybe not. And he adds that the quality of care depends on where you get it in the country.
Way of life: Although Farber says he “moved here with no purpose or agenda,” he found plenty to do. “I take Spanish lessons two days a week for two hours a day. It was awesome. I never expected to acquire a usable language in my sixties, ”he says. He also cycles around the area, writes, and is part of a community group that undertakes projects to improve the area.
And he often just soaks in nature, which he says is a big part of why he feels calmer and more relaxed in Costa Rica than in the United States. “I live 3,000 feet away but in a valley surrounded by fields of coffee, lime trees and water. . At night, if I open the windows, I hear the river go by, ”he says. “It’s very calming… hundreds of trees everywhere… you know the Earth is alive.”
The historic church of San José de Orosi. iStock
The inconvenients: “I don’t want to glorify too much. It’s not without problems, ”Farber says of Costa Rica. “There are social issues and downsides. He notes that crime and petty theft can be a problem (“I’m careful,” he says of his approach) and seems to have increased since he moved there, and adds that he lacks some cultural things because of where he lives. And, he laughs, “I can’t order Thai food at 9 o’clock in the evening.” But, he adds: “These are compromises – in the afternoon I can walk around the coffee fields and see flocks of parrots.”
Residence: To qualify for the Costa Rican pensionado visa, expats must prove that they have a pension of at least $ 1,000 each month. (Here are the details of this program.) Once you have lived in Costa Rica for three years, you can apply for permanent residence. Farber hired a lawyer to help him understand the ins and outs of residency options; his entire journey to permanent residence took about a year, he says.
The bottom line: “After five years, I am still amazed and surprised that I made the decision to lead a life I never thought I would lead,” he says. And although he may not stay in Orosi forever – “the town does not have an ambulance, [and] I don’t know what it will be like to be 80 years old there, ”he says – he intends to stay in Costa Rica largely because of the people and the sense of community. “I feel like life is good here,” he says. “It is sometimes difficult, but we are all in the same boat.
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